Samoa’s rightful government takes office at last

IT TOOK THREE and a half months and a constitutional crisis, but Samoa at last has its first change of governing party in 33 years, as well as its first female prime minister. On July 23rd the country’s court of appeal ruled that Fiame Naomi Mata’afa’s FAST party, which narrowly won an election in April, was the legitimate government of Samoa, an island nation of 200,000 people 2,900 km north-east of New Zealand. The judges emphatically rejected the protracted efforts by Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, the outgoing prime minister, and the O le Ao o le Malo, Samoa’s head of state, to thwart the election outcome. On July 26th Mr Tuilaepa at last conceded defeat.